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ODRAZ B92, Belgrade Daily News Service
Odraz B92 vesti (by 10 PM), February 18, 1997
E-mail: odrazb92@b92.opennet.org, beograd@siicom.com
WWW: http://www.siicom.com/odrazb/, http://www.opennet.org/b92/
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All texts are Copyright 1997 Radio B92. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
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NEWS BY 10 PM
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PROTESTS IN NIS OVER
The opposition coalition Zajedno in Nis decided on Tuesday to
terminate their protests at the November electoral fraud after 93
straight days. After the second session of the Nis City Assembly
on Tuesday, Zoran Zivkovic, the Mayor of Nis, said that the main
reason for the protest rallies no longer existed. He invited the
citizens of Nis to gather on February 21 for a final rally in
celebration of the opening session of the Belgrade City Assembly,
FoNet reports.
CONDEMNATION OF TUESDAY'S INCIDENT
Student Protest 96/97 condemned in the strictest terms Tuesday's
incident[ a speeding car run into the student crowd in Kolarceva
Street] and all similar attacks against peaceful demonstrators
struggling for their fundamental human rights.
Student Protest warned that such incidents over the past few weeks
had been too numerous to be unintentional and urged the Serbian
Interior Ministry to engage in finding and punishing the
perpetrators instead of preventing the peaceful protests with
innumerable cordons, Beta reports.
YUGOSLAV DELEGATION REFUSES WATTS'S PROPOSAL
Representatives of FR Yugoslavia at the negotiations for the
division of the assets of former Yugoslavia in Brussels refused on
Tuesday the international mediator Sir Arthur Watts's proposal for
the division of archives.
Rodoljub Etinski, a member of the Yugoslav delegation, told the
press after Tuesday's round of negotiations, that the ``seceded
states are interested in federal archives, while the [FR] Yugoslav
side is in favour of negotiating all state archives of the former
Socialist Federative Republic of Yugoslavia, indcluding those kept
in republics, counties and municipalities.''
Mr. Etinski commented that the interest of the former Yugoslav
republics in Sir Watts's proposal and especially in the archives
of the National Bank of Yugoslavia was because they wanted to
divide parts of state assets without a final discussion and
agreement.
Miran Mejak, head of the Slovene delegation, said that Sir Watts's
proposal was acceptable for Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia and
Macedonia. He said that the Yugoslav side had stressed that the
archives were indivisible and that the other heir states could see
them only after an agreement on the archive's indivisibility was
signed. He said such position was inadmissible for Slovenia,
Croatia, Bosnia and Macedonia. Mr. Mejak therefore thought that
the whole negotiations over the succession of the former
Yugoslavia should be placed under some international arbitration,
according to Beta.
YUGOSLAV GOVERNMENT PREPARING MEETING WITH CROAT FOREIGN MINISTER
The Yugoslav Government held a session on Tuesday to prepare their
position before talks between the Yugoslav Foreign Minister and
his Croatian counterpart in Belgrade on Wednesday. The Yugoslav
Government concluded that the meeting should develop relations
with Croatia in accordance with the agreement on the normalization
of relations between the two states. The Yugoslav side should,
however, stress the necessity for consistent implementation of the
Erdut agreement and for the granting of their legitimate rights
and status to the Serbs in the region of Srem and Baranja, a
statement by the Yugoslav Information Department said.
RHEN: FURTHER INTERNATIONAL PRESENCE IN EASTERN SLAVONIA IS
NECESSARY
UN Special Envoy for Human Rights Elizabeth Rhen stated on Tuesday
that an international presence, including military monitors, would
be necessary after the departure of the international peace forces
from Eastern Slavonia, AFP reports the Croat state newsagency Hina
as saying. The mandate of the blue helmets in the region expires
in the middle of this year, but the UN Security Council has stated
that the UN presence will be maintained for another 6 months. Ms.
Rhen stated that the international presence after the withdrawal
of the blue helmets must include representatives of the European
Union, the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe and
a huge mission of UN military monitors, among others. Ms. Rhen
said that the cases of Serb families leaving Eastern Slavonia were
a result of insecurity as to what would happen after the UN forces
leave the region. According to the Republika Srpska's newsagency
SRNA, Ms. Rhen said that the population in this region must have a
sense of security, which was not the case at present. She said
that the foundations for the respecting of human rights in this
region must be laid and that the Letter of Intention from the
Croatian Government was in accordance with European standards, but
that there had been many cases bringing Croatian good intentions
into question, FoNet reports.
ZAGREB REFUSES HAGUE TRIBUNAL'S DEMAND
The Croatian Government refused on Tuesday a demand by the Hague
War Crimes Tribunal to hand over evidence relating to the case of
General Tihomir Blaskic, indicted for war crimes in central
Bosnia, Reuters reports the Croatian state newsagency as saying.
The Tribunal informed Croat Defence Minister Gojko Susak on Friday
that he would be summoned to explain why the Croatian Government
had failed to turn over the evidence if it failed to do so by
February 19. A statement by the Croatian Government said that the
demand was not grounded on the Hague Tribunal statute and rules of
procedure nor on the requirements of international law. ``As a
sovereign state, Croatia retains the right to protect the
interests of its national security in the course of cooperation
with the Tribunal,'' the statement said.
``TA NEA:'' STIFLING OF MEDIA IN SERBIA TO CONTINUE
Statements by the newly-appointed Serbian Minister of Information
have provoked a wave of condemnations in the Greek press, FoNet's
Slobodan Markovic reported on Tuesday.
The Greek pro-government daily 'Ta Nea', which has the biggest
circulation in Greece, said on Tuesday that the statements the
Serbian Minister of Information, Radmila Milentijevic, had made to
the Serbian state-controlled daily 'Politika' showed that
disinformation and the repressive state control of the media in
Serbia would continue. The Greek daily said that the Minister had
attacked foreign journalists and threatened them with withdrawal
of their accreditations.
The opposition daily 'Elefterotipos' commented that Minister
Milentijevic wanted to turn foreign journalists into a mouthpiece
of the Serbian Government and threatened to withdraw
accreditations from those who refused to cooperate. The daily
concluded that Minister Milentijevic's statements made it obvious
that Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic had not taken the
opposition's ultimatum about introducing democratic changes which
would guarantee freedom of speech seriously.
Prepared by: Marija Milosavljevic
Edited by: Mary Anne Wood
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ODRAZ B92, Belgrade Daily News Service
E-mail: odrazb92@b92.opennet.org, beograd@siicom.com
WWW: http://www.siicom.com/odrazb/, http://www.opennet.org/b92/
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